1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a machine tool with a machine base, a working area, in which workpieces are machined, and a device, which receives chips formed during machining of the workpieces from the working area and conveys them onward.
2. Related Prior Art
Such a machine tool is known from EP 0 879 671 A1 or DE 197 26 952 A1, for example.
The known machine tools have a machine base, on which a traveling column can be moved in two directions at right angles to one another in relation to a workpiece table likewise fastened to the machine base. A tool spindle head, which bears a tool spindle, into which tools for machining workpieces clamped on the workpiece table can be chucked, is arranged height-adjustably on the traveling column. Machining of the workpieces takes place in a working area, which is sealed in relation to the moving parts of the machine tool by an appropriate cover.
Arranged below the working area is what is known as a chip tray, into which chips formed during machining of the workpieces and also the coolant sprayed into the working area for cooling the tools and workpieces pass via an obliguely extending sheet. In this way, the chips and the coolant are removed from the working area, both printed specifications leaving open how the chips are removed from the chip tray.
However, it is generally known to arrange what are known as chip conveyors, as are described in WO 2004/054756 A1 for example, behind or next to such machine tools. Such chip conveyors have a horizontally extending conveying portion and also a portion extending upward obliguely, which opens into a chip ejector. Chips passing onto the conveying portion are in this way transported to the chip ejector located higher up, from where they fall into transport containers, which serve for transporting the chips away.
In order that the chips pass from the chip tray onto the chip conveyor, chutes are provided in machine tools known to the applicant, via which the chips fall out of the machine base at the side onto the chip conveyor erected there.
The chip conveyor standing at the side next to the machine tool is in this way always accessible for maintenance measures, which are frequently necessary in particular because the chips become caught on one another and block the chip conveyor, in particular when the latter uses a screw conveyor, as is known from EP 0 417 137 A1, for transporting the chips.
However, chip conveyors with a conveying belt, as are described in WO 2004/054756 A1 mentioned in the introduction, also require frequent maintenance.
In such machine tools, it is generally found to be a disadvantage that the space requirement necessary for erecting machine tools and chip conveyors is relatively large, the construction of the machine tool also being made more complicated by virtue of the fact that measures have to be taken in order to transport the chips from the chip tray to the chip conveyor.
In such machine tools where the chip conveyor is arranged at one side of the machine tool, the switch cabinet, which accommodates the electric and pneumatic control for the machine tool, is arranged on the rear side of the machine tool. As the switch cabinet always has to be accessible, it is then not possible in such machine tools to arrange the chip conveyor behind the machine tool, although this would frequently be desirable for reasons of space.
In machine tools known from the prior art and also in associated chip conveyors, the fact that as a rule each machine tool has to be assigned its own chip conveyor or that complicated conveying tracks have to be used for transporting the chips away, as is described in detail in EP 0 417 137 A1 mentioned at the outset, is found to be a further disadvantage.